~ Not Seeing is a Flower. ~

Main menu

Post navigation

[Sigh-Kaylith] Haitai Nanafa 1 (+ Song Translation)

On the contrary to what I’ve said in the Oni-Sigh release that specials posts are really short, this one is unexpectedly large. This post will have the lyrics for the ending theme, but I’m leaving it out for the latter episodes. That said, I will feature some screenshots from the released episode to explain on some grammatical or cultural matters that might be hard to understand since it’s of Okinawan origin. Please read on to find them (here, it’s below the lyrics}.

Haitai Nanafa is all about traditional culture based in Okinawa, mainly mythology and the Okinawan cuisine. As a result, the characters are all speaking in Okinawan Japanese (Uchinaa Yamato-guchi), which is similar to e.g. the Kansai-dialect. Fortunately, they aren’t speaking in original Okinawan, since no one would be actually able to translate that stuff. The plot of the anime is basically the appearing of Kijimuna, or wood spirits, at this Okinawan restaurant called Kame Soba. These episodes only take 3 minutes of your time, so please give it a watch!

Just an extra note for the readers here. This song is half written in Okinawan, so I had to find some translation tips from Japanese natives to discover the meaning of some words. Majimun is some kind of monster (I think I should’ve translated it as wood spirits here, according to the plot of the anime), and their way of counting looks somewhat like native Japanese, as opposed to Sino-Japanese readings (ichi ni san shi go roku shichi hachi kyuu jyuu, more info in the comments thanks to Shimapan).

Translation NotesThis has a slight different layout than my usual TLC reports, since this is an original translation. I still feel the need to put up translation notes because this series is spoken in Okinawan Japanese dialect.

The topic I want to address with this image is not just the word “Haitai”, but also the term “Kijimuna”, which we liberally translated as wood spirits. Haitai is the Okinawan equivalent of Konnichiwa, but there’s a slight difference. Haitai is used by females, while the males have to use Haisai… Apparently having some feeling of masculinity in it. We can see these misinterpretations later on in the series.

Kijimuna is basically the term that makes the premises of this story. I could refer you to the Wikipedia article, but I might as well explain it to you shortly. Kijimuna are small wood spirits (seemingly around 4 to 5 years old in age) and only exist in Okinawan mythology. They’re mostly residing in Chinese banyan trees (also noted in this episode). Known to be tricksters, having a liking for fish and a dislike for octopi. Keep all of this in mind, since these minor things WILL appear in later episodes.

Sōki (ソーキ) is a specialty of the cuisine of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Sōki are (usually boneless) stewed pork spare ribs, with the cartilage still attached. They are often served with Okinawa soba.

Okinawa is strong in the cuisine when it comes to soba (noodles), so you hear these Okinawan variants all over the place in this anime. Examples are none other than “Okinawa Soba”, “Soki Soba” and “Tebichi Soba”.

Also, her name, “Kyan Nanafa”, just shows an example of an Okinawan name. The kanji combination that makes “Kyan” cannot be found anywhere except for Okinawa, and usually no kanji gives the pronunciation of “fa” (In Japanese, her name would be pronounced as Nanaha).

This is the name of the restaurant, and also yet another type of Okinawan soba. No, it does not feature turtle, as some might be thinking. It’s usually noodles served with lots of pork and vegetables. Here’s an image for the ones interested.

Thus, the restaurant “Kame Soba” does actually exist. The story might be based on a real location, but I’ve never been to Okinawa so I’m unable to find out.

I’ve focused on this just a while ago, but I’ll just keep posting it in every situation it’s actually being said. The first thing Niina says in this episode is Haisai, which is the male version of Konnichiwa. They sure don’t seem to appreciate that.

Dutch student Japanologist, and founder of Mandoran. Likes everything about Modern Japan, including anime, manga, visual novels, bowling and gaming. Frequently found as translator or translation checker of fansub groups. His portfolio can be found on his dropbox website. Follow his actions on Twitter or send him a message at chrouya@gmail.com .

3 thoughts on “[Sigh-Kaylith] Haitai Nanafa 1 (+ Song Translation)”

Hi, just found this website. I’m also doing Japanese Studies (in Germany).

I found your tl notes interesting. You’re wrong on the numbers, though. The sino-japanese numbers are those which are used for general purposes (ichi, ni, san etc.), except for 4 and 9, where the purely Japanese numbers (yon and nana) are used, because “shi” sounds like 死 (death) and “ku” sounds like 苦 (suffering).

The Okinawan numbers above are a regional variation of the purely Japanese numbers, which are used for counting things:
hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu, itsutsu, muttsu, nanatsu, yattsu, kokonotsu.
The -tsu at the end becomes -chi in Okinawan, and the first two numbers (tichi, tachi) are purely Okinawan.

About the Kame Soba: The restaurant *does* have the kanji for turtle in its name (as you can seen on the photo), but it also says right above its name that it’s made from pork, so people aren’t thrown off.

Thanks for the fast and helpful feedback. You’re definitely right on the first matter, I seem to have derped there. I always know that I should watch out with the difference in on-yomi and kun-yomi when it comes to numbers, because they just take the on-yomi even though they’re not in compounds. So I’ll fix that right away. Indeed, the kun-yomi is used for other uses and the Okinawan system seems to adopt that. Although all -tsu’s are replace with -chi’s, they’re still not entirely the same (yottsu becoming yuuchi, for example).

True, but this isn’t visible in the series, on the contrary. It might be based off this “kameekameeobaa” story I’ve had to look up in another story though (kamee being the imperative form of taberu in Okinawan).